Pat Flanagan new Sligo Manager

[rodney trotter]

Sligo finally got a manager before Christmass... Surprised he was let go by Westmeath

Flanagan is new Sligo manager
25 November 2013


Westmeath manager Pat Flanagan. Sligo's five-month search for a new football manager has ended with the appointment of former Westmeath boss Pat Flanagan.

The Offaly man was installed as Kevin Walsh's successor at a county board meeting tonight. It is the last inter-county football managerial position to be filled ahead of the 2014 season.

Flanagan spent four years in charge of Westmeath, leading them to Division 1 of the Allianz League for next season. In spite of this, the Lake County opted to replace him with Paul Bealin in September.

A statement issued by the Sligo county board tonight read: "Sligo County Board has tonight ratified the appointment of Pat Flanagan as Sligo Senior Football Manager for the coming year. Pat brings a wealth of experience having previously managed at inter-county level with Westmeath, bringing them from Division 3 to Division 1 of the National League.

"He also has managed both Clara of Offaly and Tyrrellspass of Westmeath to county successes. He has been appointed for a one-year term which will be reviewed at the end of the season. He will be meeting the players this week in addition to finalising a backroom team shortly which forms part of the management of the Sligo under 21 Team."

[SLIGONIAN]

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of westmeath and offaly folk on this, it was a surprise to me, its out of left field, winning back to back promotions and then getting let go was harsh, but the drubbing to dublin is a worry as westmeath seemed to peak in the league and collapse in championship, could go either way for us, but he has experience, Sligo are in far better shape than anyone realises aswell imo, kelly got club player of year and is flying again, youngsters are doing well with colleges so i am hoping a new look squad for next yr...

best of luck to him

[INDIANA]

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of westmeath and offaly folk on this, it was a surprise to me, its out of left field, winning back to back promotions and then getting let go was harsh, but the drubbing to dublin is a worry as westmeath seemed to peak in the league and collapse in championship, could go either way for us, but he has experience, Sligo are in far better shape than anyone realises aswell imo, kelly got club player of year and is flying again, youngsters are doing well with colleges so i am hoping a new look squad for next yr...

selectors are glenn young and tommy craddock, with young in line for u21 job...

best of luck to him

Westmeath were very badly setup that day. Employed a 12 man deep defence and invited Dublin onto them. Players marked space and never marked anybody. So it became an absolute cakewalk for Dublin.

After the game he blamed the fact it was in Croke Park and said they'd have beaten Dublin in Cusack Park.

Hard to know in my view on this one.

[shark]

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of westmeath and offaly folk on this, it was a surprise to me, its out of left field, winning back to back promotions and then getting let go was harsh, but the drubbing to dublin is a worry as westmeath seemed to peak in the league and collapse in championship, could go either way for us, but he has experience, Sligo are in far better shape than anyone realises aswell imo, kelly got club player of year and is flying again, youngsters are doing well with colleges so i am hoping a new look squad for next yr...

selectors are glenn young and tommy craddock, with young in line for u21 job...

best of luck to him

Westmeath were very badly setup that day. Employed a 12 man deep defence and invited Dublin onto them. Players marked space and never marked anybody. So it became an absolute cakewalk for Dublin.

After the game he blamed the fact it was in Croke Park and said they'd have beaten Dublin in Cusack Park.

Hard to know in my view on this one.

I don't think he actually said they would have beaten Dublin in Cusack Park, but he was certainly looking for excuses after an awful performance.  He had 3 good national league campaigns but not one championship win of note.  He was well liked among the players without really being respected as a top level manager. His best results have been at club level, where he brought Tyrrellspass to a Leinster final. I think Westmeath were correct in moving him on, but I'm not sure that he has been replaced well. Sligo could have done a lot worse.

[Croí na hÉireann]

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of westmeath and offaly folk on this, it was a surprise to me, its out of left field, winning back to back promotions and then getting let go was harsh, but the drubbing to dublin is a worry as westmeath seemed to peak in the league and collapse in championship, could go either way for us, but he has experience, Sligo are in far better shape than anyone realises aswell imo, kelly got club player of year and is flying again, youngsters are doing well with colleges so i am hoping a new look squad for next yr...

selectors are glenn young and tommy craddock, with young in line for u21 job...

best of luck to him

Ye won't do much better this late in the day. Has experience of coming in at the 11th hour before and settling things down. Great league manager but rubbish championship one. Could never find that extra gear that you need for championship. In fact we lost about 10% every summer instead of gaining it. But shouldn't really concern Sligo IMO, league more important for ye next year. BTW, didn't get back to back promotions, just about kept us in Div 2 in the year between promotions. Worth noting however that that was the year that Garrycastle made the club final and there were a load of defections to the hurlers as well.

After the game he blamed the fact it was in Croke Park and said they'd have beaten Dublin in Cusack Park.

He did a fair bit of whinging alright but he never said that. The actual quote:

"Dublin played eight games here this year, this is our third game in about four years here. It's got to be a huge advantage. That's not Dublin's fault by any means or manner. It is a huge opportunity for Dublin.

"I would say if we had all our games in Cusack Park for the next two years, we would win a Leinster championship. It is a bonus to them. But it is something every other county needs to overcome because the games are not going to be shifted out of it."

Edit: beaten by shark, again.

[orangeman]

Pat's complaint about playing in Cusack Park came back to bite the arse off him when Fermanagh bate Westmeath in Cusack Park in the first round of the qualifiers.

[Walter Cronc]

Surely the man deserved a crack at Div 1 with Westmeath??

Has Paul Bealin done anything of note since he was over Wexford?

[rodney trotter]

Paul Bealins record at County level isn't a step up over Pat Flanagan. Average CV at Co level, and was managing a team of stars this year Parnells, and didn't deliver with them.

[Rossfan]

A late hour to have a manager coming in which doesn't help as we found out over the last 2 years.
Hopefully he and Pete McGrath will have wonderful D3 campaigns in 2015 and sure we might meet in the 2014 Connacht final

[magpie seanie]

Hadn't heard about the selectors but guessed one of the two and should have suspected the other. All in all I'm pretty optimistic about this setup, particularly in light of some of the speculation as to who we could have got. He has a long list of success at club level. I wouldn't be too worried about last summers game against Dublin - very few would have lived with them last year. We won't need to beat a team as good as Dublin to have a successful season. Croi's comments are a worry in that regard but for once I actually think we need a decent league. Morale is so low in the county that a few early wins are needed. We need to be at the upper end of Div3 rather than fighting the drop.

Would have been better to get him in place a little earlier but the lads are back training a few weeks (don't think they could start any earlier anyway?) so I wouldn't see it as a huge impediment. Cautiously optimistic.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Surely the man deserved a crack at Div 1 with Westmeath??

Has Paul Bealin done anything of note since he was over Wexford?

Horrendous championship record ensured that he didn't deserve another year. He had a win percentage of 33% in the Leinster Championship, 20% in the qualifiers with an overall percentage of 27% in the All Ireland Championship. This from a county that is in Division 1 next year.

That said, I think Bealin is a step backwards. At least Flanagan had success on the club scene. Could be worse to come as well, Carr is reportedly lined up for the job next year, didn't want it this year as he doesn't fancy our chances in Div 1. 

[AZOffaly]

If ye appoint mr Carr you'd better keep your mouth shut on here.

[Lone Shark]

Horrendous championship record ensured that he didn't deserve another year. He had a win percentage of 33% in the Leinster Championship, 20% in the qualifiers with an overall percentage of 27% in the All Ireland Championship. This from a county that is in Division 1 next year.

Surely you must realise that this is a daft way of thinking? I can understand people giving Flanagan credit for the league success and criticising him for the championship, or it would also be fair to say that the players deserve both the praise and the criticism. But to blame Flanagan for championship results and say that it's unacceptable "from a county in division 1" as if that status came out of nowhere is utterly hypocritical.

In 2011 he had just taken over and yes the championship performances were poor, but it was his first year and he had just won promotion with the team.

In 2012 ye lost narrowly to Louth and avenged that result emphatically in the qualifiers, before getting a harsh overcarrying call that knocked ye out against Kerry. In 2013 ye destroyed an admittedly poor Carlow side, before losing ye're main forward in the warm up and had a bad day against a Dublin team that destroyed a lot of good teams, and then a normally reliable keeper let in two howlers against Fermanagh and ye lost by a point.

Not brilliant certainly, but hardly horrendous either. I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is a daft decision by the Westmeath County board and if someone wanted to offer me good odds on Sligo playing division 2 football in 2016 while Westmeath are down in division 3, I'd punt. Ye've traded a good guy that players respected for a journeyman outsider with no track record of success - it's daft and it'll also be remembered when ye look for other managers in the future.

[Syferus]

Surely the man deserved a crack at Div 1 with Westmeath??

Has Paul Bealin done anything of note since he was over Wexford?

Horrendous championship record ensured that he didn't deserve another year. He had a win percentage of 33% in the Leinster Championship, 20% in the qualifiers with an overall percentage of 27% in the All Ireland Championship. This from a county that is in Division 1 next year.

That said, I think Bealin is a step backwards. At least Flanagan had success on the club scene. Could be worse to come as well, Carr is reportedly lined up for the job next year, didn't want it this year as he doesn't fancy our chances in Div 1. 

Ah don't worry, you won't be there for long. See you in D2 in 2015, Croi.

Would be grand if Tommy was on the opposite sideline too.

[Croí na hÉireann]

If ye appoint mr Carr you'd better keep your mouth shut on here.

On the contrary, there will be plenty of venting to be done.

LS, we've already been through this on twitter and I know you're a fan of Pat but he simply wasn't able to gear them up for championship. All the top managers are able to wrangle an extra 10% out of a team come championship. The reality is that Westmeath never did themselves justice under Pat in the championship (and of course the players have to take their share of the criticism here as well).

We can go through each end every game but to take your examples:

2011: Were completely dismantled by Wexford, complete horror show. Then lost faith in his game plan and tried to change to a more defensive formation for the 1st round of the qualifiers. Another horror show ensured in Casement Park. This was not the actions of a man in command of the situation, probably the lowest ebb.

2012: Lost to Louth in a game we should have won. Should have but didn't avenge that result emphatically. Louth had two men sent off in the first half and it was level with 5 minutes to go. To quote Flanagan "We were like headless chickens out there today". People can whinge and whine about the harsh overcarrying call against Kerry but we were still in front after the goal. Not to mention the softish penalty awarded to us and the bizarre events leading up to the match.

2013: The Carlow game was the first game I've never had championship nerves for, the reason being their warm up and poor skill execution. I've seen Junior B's with better set ups, like you said poor. Crazy tactics against Dublin, learnt absolutely nothing from trying to mark space in the games against Derry. The better players were beaten by the better coached team in the qualifiers. Notwithstanding Gary getting under a ball we were never on top in that game and when it came to the crunch it was Fermanagh who had the smarts.

P11 W3 L8. Two of the wins were against Div 4 teams and other one was against 13 men for 35 minutes. Two of the wins were in Mullingar, the other one was in Tullamore. Sure you can make the odd excuse the odd time but not when you look at the big picture. Like I said horrendous.

Not all the players respected Pat but I agree that we've probably traded down. Our CB get more things wrong than right but in this instance they were fully justified to see were there more suitable candidates out there. I'm surprised they didn't get a better quality of managers interested, (why did McStay go for the Kildare job when Westmeath are nearer to his base) but they still did the right thing in looking. Now appointing Bealin over reappointing Pat is where we start to get things wrong again.